Yesterday I wrapped up the boxes that contain my Long Series of 1000, 12×12 inch paintings. How tall is a stack of 1000 paintings? Taller than my 2 year old son, and far heavier!
I loaded them into the trunk of our car and delivered them to the Confederation Centre of the Arts, and now begins the process of making sense of this large pile of work. The work will be part of an exhibition called Assembly Lines, and the opening is on October 22, 2011.
My 5 year old daughter drew a map of our neighborhood, and I was surprised at how accurate it was. She wasn’t happy with how our house looked so she crossed it out and redrew it. The cross hatching in the lower right corner represents our neighborhood park, and the houses in the top part of the map represent her cousin’s house, and her friend’s house. I especially like the dotted lines in the middle of the streets.
This is not a top ten list, but rather a totally random list of things I like, listed in alphabetical order of course, and complete with links where possible.
1. Bedside tables. I believe that bedside tables are essential because where else are you going to put your junk? A good bedside table can hold at least 40 books, 3 Kleenex boxes, 4 water glasses, 2 pairs of eye glasses and a few other things all at once. Just don’t overload the table.
2. Kraft cheese slices. For years I always thought I hated cheese slices, but it turns out I love them. They are great on sandwiches and cheese burgers, and they are great just out of the plastic wrap as a snack.
3. Landmarks. Whenever I head into another town or city I often use landmarks to find my way about. When I go to Halifax I look for the Citadel overlooking the harbour to give me a sense of where I am. Of course, if I’m nowhere near the Citadel I’m completely screwed so I then drive around looking for the Citadel. This method rarely gets me where I want to go, but at least I know where I am.
4. Mclaren MP4/5. This might be the last truly beautiful Formula One car, and its incredible lines make it a work of art. It also won a lot of races.
5. Monkey bars. My kids love a good set of monkey bars, and if they can reach the bars they love to hang around. It really is amazing how fast they can climb the things, and I figure it gives them the best combination of fun and exercise. So far they haven’t fallen off too often, and I’ve managed to catch them a couple of times. They just dust themselves off and climb back on, none the wiser.
6. Poppy seed bagels. I go through spurts of eating these things every day for breakfast. I like them with cream cheese, but I like them best with raspberry jam!
7. Raspberry jam. We are lucky to have a raspberry patch in our backyard, and if we can keep the kids from eating them all Jane makes an incredibly good raspberry jam. I like jam on my bagels.
8. Spaghetti and meatballs. One of my favourite meals is spaghetti and meatballs, and the more garlic in the sauce the better. The kids like it too though Sam is going through one of those stages where the only thing he wants to eat are smoked salmon, hot dogs, and cheese slices.
9. Stopping and asking for directions. Often as I wander around looking for the Citadel in Halifax I will stop and ask someone for directions. People are often friendly and will tell me where to go, and when I get to the Citadel I will often say, “There is the landmark I was looking for…what was the name of the street we’re looking for again?” But once I have a landmark I usually know where I am so I don’t have to stop again to ask for directions until I’m out of sight of my landmark.
10. Toronto Maple Leaf fans. The world is a better place because of Toronto Maple Leaf fans. They are life’s eternal dreamers, they take an incredible amount of abuse and bounce right back, and they are true believers, at least for the first period of the first game of the season, and then they smile and say next season we’ll take it all. May they always exist, because that kind of will power to stick with such a terrible team is admirable.
When I look through my work I’m always surprised at how often I will take a theme and run with it until I can run no more. This group of paintings from my Long Series is a case in point. I used a simple shape that to me represents a dome, and I worked with it in as many variations as I could until I lost interest.
I had completely forgotten these two paintings, and as you can see I worked on them at the same time. Though they aren’t truly positive and negative, I like to refer to them as such.
Painter's Progress 